The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1887-04-09

Now pour its wave along my grave, my narrow
island home!
The recollection of the circumstances
under which Kumba had placed these
verses in her hand, threw Lilly into a
train of feeling which would have been
dangerous to her resolution of meeting
her mothers friends with gay spirit
becoming the occasion-had not her
meditations been interrupted by the
slight pressure of that mothers hand
upon her neck, as she leaned forward in
her chair.
"Well, Lilly, my love. will you not
come down? The company are wait
ing, and Mrs. Hasset has been asking
for you no less than three times. What!
you have been crying again, 1 declare!
Well, then! o then, to be sure, now.
Lilly!"
"Ah, mother, do not blame me. 1t is
not for the Robert Kumba that is now
wholly abandoned to low courses, I
weep, but for him who was so kind, so
generous, so amiable, so feeling! Do
not think that any degree either of hope
or of discomfort .mingles with my re-
greet. Hook upon myself, on the con-
trary, as one who mas been providen-
TALLY delivered from yelled and GER
tain danger. Neither" she added, as
she observed her mothers eyes glisten
and fill, ''neither have 1 given up all
hope even of this worlds happiness.
Can it be criminal, mother, in me to
suffer such hope to minyle with those
which are fixed where they cannot
change or darken? Was it criminal in
me, just now, when knelt before the
Almighty, to offer up tear and a prayer
for him; and to indulge the belief filLu-
sive perhaps) that even at that moment
my sorrow might have found it's way to
the throne of Heaven, and that some
single pang, some misfortune, some
threatened danger, might have been
spared to my once-loved friend in mercy
to my agony?''
The reader, who has accompanied
Kumba through the events of this day.
might perhaps have told Lilly a secret
on this subject.
II will own, mother" she continued,
after pause, while the afflicted old
lady endeavored by caresses and en-
treaties to console her, ''that it cost me
some struggles, and was long while
before brought myself to make the
sacrifice Of myself entirely thus-and if
do not deceive my own heart-if in
deed it is made, l have no merit in it
for it seems to me to be only the pres
sure of repeated disappointmets in my
fondest wishes, that has at last con-
quered my obstinate will. You think
me melancholy, now, MOTHER" she add
ed, smiling with real cheerfulness, as
she looked into the eyes Of her parent,
s'but indeed l am not, [ do not" she
continued, smiling yet more gaily, and
hesitating little, while she laid her
finger on a borrowed volume of the let
tiers of celebrated and titled authoress,
which were then creating general
sensation in England Ia sensation that
time has little diminished)--''I do not,
at present at least, feel that mortifica-
ton which this lady expresses at grow
ing wiser every day and seeing, like
Solomon, the vanity of all temporal
concerns. And is not that great deal?
Come, mother, you shall see that 1 can
be happy in spite of my own peevish
Wishes" and passing her handkerchief
over her thin, white, and wasted, but
light and pleasant countenance, she
paused one moment with clasped hands
on the threshold of the door, and moved
her lips as if to solicit an increase Of
contentment and resignation; after
which she treathed one short sigh as a
last tribute to the dominion of melan-
choly for the evening, and quietly fol-
lowed her mother.
One very brief but painful struggle
only she had to endure, when first the
sounds of merriment broke upon her
now unaccustomed ear. It was the
time that any number of friends (for
relatives only, and those few, were in
vited) had met iii that apartment since
those two dear ones had been lost to
the circle. Another vigorous exertion,
however, enabled our little heroine to
recover her self possession.
Ito be continued.)
Afire wiped out the business part of
Indianola, Tex, last week,